Cutting Through the Lies
by Camy-Tay
Summary: Sakura's being abused, but no one notices. So she cuts herself. What happens when someone starts to help her? SasuSaku, OOC. DEALS WITH CUTTING. DON'T LIKE, DON'T READ.
1. Chapter 1

Slice, slice.

Sakura smiled as she saw the red ribbons form and trail down her wrists. She didn't know when she started cutting, and now she couldn't remember why. But she did and she enjoyed it now. It was a way of life.

Today she was cutting for a reason though. Her father again.

No one thought he beat her, but he did. It was never physical, but he always beat her. He yelled at Sakura if he thought she did one thing wrong, then yelled at her more if she was right. If things weren't done down to the T, or exactly how things went in his head, Mr. Haruno would yell at her.

Granted, Sakura probably would have been able to handle it if it were just yelling. But it wasn't. Sometimes he would grab her ass and yell at her if she pulled away, or threatened to throw her out if she said anything. She needed perfect grades or he would ground her, and her friends got so sick of her being so goody-two-shoes that they gave up on her ever hanging out with them.

Isolated and alone, Sakura could do nothing. She had no one to run to and no one to talk to. Her father had made her helpless and there was nothing she could do anymore but just take it.

When Sakura was younger, she thought her mother understood her and Sakura thought they shared the abuse. Now that she was sixteen, she realized they didn't. Her mother had always been submissive around her father, and when Mr. Haruno left for work Mrs. Haruno would lash out at Sakura. She would bitch about her day and what she had to do, how she was so busy and had no time for herself. Eventually she would get to the point that she argued with Sakura too and blamed Sakura for being so anti-social.

Just to please her parents, Sakura would join sports and clubs she didn't like and fight to be the star of the teams. Her parents got frustrated that they would have to pick her up, and would often leave her stranded to get rides with other people. Most of the people were former friends or plain rivals, refusing.

Instead she walked home, more than seven miles, and waited to be yelled at for being so late to everything. On her ways, she made up friends that were stronger than her, smarter, older, or braver than her. In her fantasies, she would have them empower her enough to stand up to her parents and would take her in until she was legally old enough to live on her own.

In the end, she would just come home and be yelled at, often finding herself crawled up in bed late at night, crying herself to sleep.

It was on one of her hikes home that she met him. Sasuke Uchiha. He was a rich bad-ass with no regard to anything around him. His parents had died when he was young in a car accident, leaving him and his older brother to raise themselves. He had no respect for anyone and spoke his mind, no matter what.

He was everything she wanted to be and could never be able to surmount to. It was no wonder to her when she found herself thinking of him at night, and it was inevitable she would find herself in love with him.

But they had never spoken.

"Sakura! Wake up! You're late for school!" her father yelled, slamming on the door with his meaty hand so hard Sakura shot out of bed, afraid he would break it and catch her. She wondered what he would do, but thought better.

"Sorry!" she yelled back.

"Sorry doesn't do shit! Get your ass out of your room and hurry the fuck up. Don't fucking make your friends late picking you up!"

She looked at her new cuts and sighed before licking the blood off of them and bandaging them. She liked punishing herself, it let her feel again. Something she hadn't been doing for years.

Once they were bandaged, Sakura put black wristbands over them. She wore them every day with short sleeves. People would be more suspicious that she was cutting if they saw her wearing long sleeves than if she wore the wristbands. She had been wearing them since she was ten.

As she dressed, she looked for new bruises. Not from her father, but from her bed or her sports--this time of year it was soccer--or even from her path home. Finding seven, she pulled on a blue shirt and gray sweatpants, hoping to be unnoticed by anyone.

"Get your fucking ass out here for breakfast!" her father yelled.

Sakura silently walked out and grabbed a Pop-Tart, telling her mother she was walking to TenTen Akimoto's house before school. She left and started walking for school. If she didn't leave now, she wouldn't make it to school on time.

As she walked, she started to sing to make everything less scary. It was dark out still, the lights on her path flickering and Sakura had a funny feeling she was being watched, just like she felt every day. But there was no one to tell that to, not even a therapist.

If her parents only let her go. There was so much she needed to talk about, cry about. She needed someone to analyze her and try to make things better. But her parents would never okay one, and if they did they would want full-reports of everything she said.

It wasn't worth the abuse. It was when Sakura had made this conclusion that she found herself cutting. It had been a rush and painful. Soon, she became dependent on cutting, only feeling again after she did.

Feeling. It'd be nice to feel things. The only things she felt were pain and a muted, unrequited love. And even those were starting to be drown out by the numbness around her. It was the reason she walked without a jacket in the cold, it was the reason she slept on the floor.

She wanted to feel.

"Just a day, just an…ordinary day. Just trying to get by," she sang. She had a voice, but no one would ever know. Her parents yelled at her all the time about how her singing sucked and how horrible the music she listened to was. She was forced, when in the car with her parents, to only listen to what they wanted to hear. "You better lose yourself in the music the moment you want it--"

A car blared its horn somewhere on the street and Sakura jumped. She was in the middle of nowhere. There were no cars around.

She looked around and found nothing. She shivered and hurried on, singing a new song even louder. She wished her parents weren't cheap and bought her an iPod, but when she asked for one even for Christmas, she was told how she didn't appreciate that she had a family with money. Her mother started spieling about how she had to work for years for her father and Sakura would never know a bastard until she worked for her father in a restaurant.

"I've had a little bit too much," Sakura started, looking up to the sky.

By the time she got towards the school, she stopped singing and walked in silence, so well-programmed by her parents she became self-conscious of herself and believed everything they said.

"Hey, Sakura," a girl from her soccer team, Ino, greeted, waving. Ino sat with her at lunch and in exchange for the act of kindness Sakura listened to Ino talk about herself and how everyone loved her. "Guess what I did this weekend."

There were three options. A) get high, B) get laid, or C) both. Ino told Sakura everything she didn't want to know or hear. It was like Ino thought she was the most important person on earth and that everyone hung on her every word about how wonderful and amazing her life was.

As the day shifted by like a blur of every other day like it, Sakura noticed for the first time Sasuke Uchiha was in her first three classes. She had never seen him in school, or thought he would be in honors.

When the bell rang for fourth, Sakura got up and saw Sasuke walk over towards her. Just as he was about to reach her, Sasuke was swarmed by girls and Sakura was stuck in the class, making her late for her teacher Tsunade's class.

"Late? I'd never expect this of you, Sakura. I'm very disappointed," Tsunade told her, shaking her head.

Out of all the people that could say they were disappointed in her, Sakura never wanted it to be Tsunade. Tsunade was the closest thing Sakura had to a mother. She had replaced her own mother with Tsunade in her mind, and often missed practice just to stay after with Tsunade and pretend she had a better life than she did.

Several minutes after Sakura had taken her seat, Sasuke strolled in, tossing a pass to Tsunade and sitting down in the back of the class. From Sakura's seat right in the front, she could see the pass was signed by the principal and had her lipstick kiss in the corner.

Obviously the Uchiha was not particular. It made Sakura disgusted, but at the same time ashamed she was the only one he hadn't made an advance at.

When the bell rang for fifth and lunch, Tsunade called Sakura over for a conversation. "Is everything all right?" Sakura asked, concerned. "Is this about being late? I got stuck behind a lot of girls. I couldn't get by them. Is this about my grades? Did I get a bad grade? Am I failing?" she asked desperately.

"Calm down, Sakura," Tsunade told her, sighing. "Your grade is fine. It's still a hundred and four. I was just wondering if everything was okay with you. You've always seemed kind of uptight, but I think I really hurt you when I said I was disappointed in you. Is there anything you want to tell me?"

"No, nothing. I was just kind of upset because it wasn't my fault. I got stuck behind some girls, and they made me late," she said, starting to cry. She wouldn't accomplish anything by crying, stop crying.

Just hearing her parents' voices in her head, Sakura started to tear more. She froze for a moment and fought hard against the tears, She would not look weak in front of her favorite teacher.

Eventually she calmed down and Tsunade excused her with a pass.

* * *

"Bye," Sakura whispered in the locker room after the soccer game, knowing no one would be happy with the way she played. She was terrified at the thought of hearing her parents criticize her. The only things they showed up to were the games she played poorly in.

The coach, Anko Mitarashi, smiled at Sakura. "You played phenomenally today, Sakura. Keep up the good work."

Leave it to the coach to try to be nice to her. "Thanks, Coach," she replied quietly. "I'll see you tomorrow at practice."

As she walked outside, she looked around, half-hoping her parents were outside waiting for her.

They weren't and Sakura sighed at the thought of having to walk home in the dark after hearing from all the girls on the soccer team that their was a rapist on the path. When she looked confused, everyone told her every parent in the school system had received emails the day before and were told to show their children. It seemed odd to them Sakura's parents wouldn't tell her and she played it off like they forgot to check their email.

On the path, she shifted her duffel bag and hoisted it higher over her shoulder. She was good at self-defense, and if it came down to a fight she could run faster than anyone she knew.

"Sidewalks, running away from the streets we knew," she started to sing, feeling it appropriate for the time. "Sidewalks, like the time we thought was made for you, oh."

Suddenly there was a rustling noise and Sakura froze. There was a grunt and movement in the trees. Before she could react, Sasuke came tumbling out to her right and plowed right into her, making her fall with him.

"Ow," she muttered, squeezing her eyes shut to avoid the pain. "Can you get--"

"Sorry," Sasuke apologized quickly as he scurried off her. He stuck out his hand and grimaced. "I didn't mean to knock you over. I was trying to catch up with you, but you're pretty fast, Sakura."

"Excuse me?" she blurted. "You even know who I am?" she asked.

He quirked an eyebrow. "The geek that sits in the front of every one of my classes. A real perfectionist. Now do you know who _I_ am?"

"Way too popular to be talking to me," she replied. "Like you said, I'm the geek at the front of the room. Nobody likes me. You're not going to be ashamed if someone finds out that you were with me?" she asked.

He shrugged. "There's a rapist in the woods. Do you think I'm an ass? I'm not leaving anyone in the woods alone. Besides, you're on my way home. People may think I'm an ass, but I was raised like a gentleman. It's my duty to walk you home."

She nodded, thinking he was nuts. "And what if you end up being the rapist?" she asked.

"Did you not see the email?" Sasuke replied. "He's old. He looks like Michael Jackson after he changed skin-colors."

"You lost me at Michael Jackson. Who is he?" she asked.

Sasuke sighed and shook his head. "I need to introduce you to American culture," he told her as he started to walk. "Come on. The woods get creepier when the sun goes down, and I'm pretty sure there are bigger animals around."

"Okay," she replied, shrugging as she walked with him. Bigger animals. Ha! The biggest animal in these woods were a few lost dogs. Next to that were a few foxes. "So, how do you know my house is on your way home?" she asked.

"I've seen you walking. I get on the path right after you, like, every day. Obviously you live in the same neighborhood as me. Why don't your parents bring you to school?" he asked. "Especially with a rapist on the shortcut?"

She shrugged. "They think I get a ride every day. I just like the exercise."

"Ah huh."

And then it was silent. Sakura hummed and Sasuke stopped her at one point. "Why don't you like to sing around people?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I can't sing. When I think I'm alone I'll sing, but I can't really sing and I don't like to embarrass myself."

He snorted. "I've heard you before. You're a really good singer."

"Thanks. Tell it to my parents. They think I'm horrible. They think I'm tone-deaf."

"Are you kidding?" Sakura nodded. "That sucks. I'd yell at them."

Sakura laughed. She had no doubt he would. "I'd love to see that fight," she told him, thinking of it. She yearned to see her parents put in their places. "My parents are pretty strict," she told him.

Sasuke laughed. "I know what that's like. My parents were pricks before they died. At least my dad was. He'd yell at me for everything and nothing. At first I just took it. It was how his dad was, and his dad's dad. It's part of being an Uchiha to deal with a jackass for a dad. Eventually I had enough, though. I yelled at my dad and he gave me a black-eye."

Sakura hissed. At least her parents had never hit her. "How'd that go?"

"I gave him one. And eye for an eye. And then my dad accepted me as a man. Said all I needed was to stand up for myself." Then Sasuke laughed cynically. "Of course, two weeks later he died. I don't know how well that logic went. But at least I haven't taken shit from anyone since. I figured, if I can handle my dad, I can handle and fucker that tries to take me on."

Sakura smiled. "That must have been amazing. How long have you and your brother been living alone? Were you in the car when they got in the accident?"

He shook his head. "Too long," he answered.

It was silent again and Sakura tried talking to fill in the void. Eventually she made it home and Sasuke watched her walk in the door. She smiled and waved when she got inside. At least she knew her parents weren't home.

She dashed up to her room and closed the door, turning on the music and unwrapped her wrists. She looked at them and thought for a few minutes. Was it really easier to cut herself than to stand up for herself?

* * *

"I didn't know you had a long-sleeve shirt," Ino greeted her the next day.

Sakura shrugged, pulling the sleeves down a little. "I was really cold today," she replied, shivering as she let her hand glide over a bruise. "So, what's up?"

For once she didn't mind Ino rant about herself. So long as no one noticed Sakura was more bruised than normal. She would be fine if everyone ignored her today, just like any other day.

Sasuke had been wrong. Her father didn't want her to stand up for herself. He beat her up and told her she could go live in the woods and fuck a rapist every night for all he cared about her ideas. When he saw how bruised he made her, he snarled and threw a hard bottle of Mrs. Haruno's concealer at her head and told her to wear it.

Speaking of which, the bruise the concealer made in her head was pounding.

She begged for the bell than rushed to her class. As students piled in, Sakura caught Sasuke's eye and she realized something clicked in his head. She had a silent panic attack and tried to calm down. There was no way he knew. No. Way.

She got through to fourth period without a hitch, and then Tsunade intervened. "Sakura, can I talk to you?" she asked, sitting in her seat. Sakura nodded and Tsunade waited for the other students to clear. "There's been a rumor going around that you were adopted. I just wanted to know from you if you were aware of it and if you were. It's okay if you were adopted, I just want to make sure you're okay," Tsunade said.

"As far as I know…there's a strong chance," she replied, looking down as she tugged at her sleeves again. "I mean, I've done Punnett Squares in school. Both my parents provided history of their family. They're both homozygous for dark brown eyes. To have green, they need to at least be heterozygous for light brown and green."

Tsunade looked at her and Sakura shrugged. "I'm in AP Biology. We did complex Punnett Squares a week or so ago. This was my project. I constructed a Punnett using the alleles for eye color. It circled around my class for awhile when they realized my parents could never have given me these eyes."

"And are you okay with that?" Tsunade asked.

Sakura nodded, then a few seconds later shook her head and started crying. "No," she replied softly. "It's not fair. Why does everything have to happen to me? Why me?"

She stayed there all through lunch and fifth period, talking to Tsunade about her parents and how they abused her, even showed Tsunade some of her recent bruises. When the bell rang for sixth, she wiped away the tears and asked Tsunade for a pass. The elder woman gave it to her and walked her to her class.

"Thank you," Sakura whispered, eyes down towards the tile.

"You're welcome," Tsunade replied, smiling faintly.

"Sakura, guess what," Ino whispered when class started. "Sasuke asked me out. Today at lunch. I mean, I need your opinion. Should I fuck him or stay with Shikamaru? I mean, he's going to school in Suna now, and he's dating that whore Temari, but he talks to me every night about how he misses me and hates her. I mean, we were engaged. He was so in love with me he bought me a 24-karat, eighteen diamond engagement ring."

The ring in question, Sakura knew for a fact, was a gaudy piece of crap Naruto Uzumaki got out of a vending machine and ended up chucking at Shikamaru Nara when Naruto realized it wasn't the ring he wanted.

Shikamaru then gave it to Ino for no reason because she kept saying he never did anything romantic for her. Sakura and Shikamaru had been close, just like she and Naruto before her friends gave up on her.

"Ino, I have no clue. Besides, when I asked for help with guys last week you had no advice for me," she replied, annoyed.

Ino glared at her. "You don't have to be a fucking cunt about it, Sakura. Jesus, you bitch at me for nothing. I didn't even do anything. Yet. Later I'll be so--"

Sakura couldn't take it anymore. "Ino, shut the fuck up!" she yelled, standing up and facing the girl. "I'm so fucking sick of hearing your bullshit about how amazing your fucking life is when even _I_wouldn't trade my life for yours. You're a fucking cunt, no one likes you, and everyone knows that Shikamaru fucking hates your guts. He only went out with you to get laid. That ring was a piece of shit he got from Naruto and he gave it to you to shut you up. He doesn't smoke, and the last time he talked to you was when he was telling you about the restraining order he was putting on you."

"What the fuck, you little bitch?" Ino yelled. "My parents threatened to put a restraining order on him. You wouldn't get it because your parents like you. All of my family hates me," she said.

"Hey, Ino? My parents fucking _abuse_ me. I think you've got it easy." She ripped up her sleeves and showed off giant, swollen, purplish-black bruise and black veins. She lifted up her shirt to show the bruises on her toned stomach from when he father yelled at her about how fat she was. "So sorry if I don't give a fuck about your dating shit. My parents abuse me, my friends abandoned me, and I'm adopted. So fuck you."

Before anyone could respond, Sakura stormed out of the room, then streaked down the hallways to escape. She couldn't stand this school. She had to go, she had to leave, had to escape. She would get home before her dad did and pack only the most necessary clothes before bolting.

She didn't care if she had to live in the woods or in a cardboard box, just so long as she got away from home, school, her sorry excuse for a life.

As she reached the parking lot, she saw Sasuke stalled in front of the stairs on his motorcycle. He smiled and tossed her a helmet. She caught it and looked from the helmet to Sasuke. It was blue with the Uchiha crest on one side, and a cherry blossom with her name on the other.

"Come on, get on," he told her, revving the engine.

"Aren't you supposed to be Ino's boyfriend now?" she asked, not moving.

He snorted. "That fucking cunt? No. I asked her where you were at lunch. She had no fucking clue, but she'd help me find you. I figured you were still with Tsunade. I knew this would happen eventually. Come on."

She put the helmet on and got on back, smiling as Sasuke roped her arms tighter around him. They sped off through the forest and Sakura was amazed at everything around her. It was so new to her. She was flying through the place she had walked in a hundred times.

Sasuke brought her to her house and Sakura saw extra cars in the driveway. And her father's. She froze at first, but Sasuke squeezed her hand to comfort her. "I won't let him hurt you," he told her.

When they entered, Sakura took Sasuke to the living room and found her parents seething at three men in suits, a lady and Tsunade, who was glaring back at them. At the sound of Sakura's entrance, everyone turned to look at her. Tsunade smiled.

"What's going on?" Sakura asked.

The female turned and smiled at Sakura. Definitely a _gaijin_--she had blonde hair and blue eyes like Ino. Everyone knew Ino was pretending to be Japanese. Blondes with blue eyes in Japan normally meant Americans. "Hi, I'm Marisa Tanaka," she greeted. "You must be Sakura."

She nodded and sat down. So Marisa was half-Japanese. "What's this all about?"

"Sakura, I'm Ken Fujimoto. I'm from Child Services," one of the two young me in suits said, sticking out a hand for her to shake. "Some of your teachers have been showing concern about you and your actions lately. When we contacted Tsunade today she informed us that you were being abused. Is this true?"

"Sakura, tell them we're not beating you," her mother said sweetly, making Sakura's neck her from whiplash, she turned so fast. Mrs. Haruno smiled. "Honestly, Sakura overreacts sometimes. She's a very sensitive child. She cried when she got an eighty-nine last year in her Chemistry class."

"Kaasan," Sakura whispered, sad that she was being made to look like a baby by her parents when they would yell and scream and hit her again later. She could tell her father liked that last night.

"Don't talk back to your mother," Mr. Haruno snapped. "Look, sir, I've told my daughter before, if she doesn't like it here, she can leave. I even offered to call you myself." It was true. "She's never wanted to leave. The truth is, she's been fighting with her friend lately because Sakura's been jealous. Her friends are much smarter than her and she feels insecure around them."

Sasuke snorted and sat down carelessly next to the other young man in the suit. Having them sit next to each other, Sakura noticed the similarities between them and realized they were brothers. So this was Itachi.

Itachi in turn smiled at Sakura. "I'm Itachi Uchiha. You may know my brother Sasuke. This is our lawyer and the man that raised us until I was of age, Jiraiya Mishimoto."

"Hi," Sakura greeted, smiling nervously.

Suddenly Sakura's father slammed his fist on the table. "Why aren't you in school right now?" he yelled. "You have classes. You should be in class right now and then you should be at practice. Why are you here?"

"I left early," she replied, quiet. Unconsciously she fixed the sleeves of her shirt. "I was sick and Sasuke drove me home."

"And you've never gone to school with a fever before?" Mrs. Haruno asked, horrified. "When I was working for my father, I had to wait tables--"

"With a fever. You don't know the meaning of being sick until you've worked for your father with a cold," Sakura mouthed along with her mother. Eventually Sakura turned back to Tsunade and Marisa. "What are you two doing here?" she asked. "I mean, what are any of you doing here?"

"Sakura, Marisa is my lawyer," Tsunade explained. "As weird as this sounds, I've been looking for you for a long time. Marisa's here to help me gain custody of you."

Marisa cleared her throat. "We're all here wondering if you and your parents would be willing to submit to a DNA test. There was the matter that your parents would agree, but they refused to give you permission. So, we spoke to Jiraiya."

He smiled apologetically. "They asked me how to test a child's parentage without the legal guardians' consent. As it ends up, you have extenuating circumstances. There's a possibility you were abducted as a child, and there's evidence that you've been abused. We had to bring into Child Services to get the go-ahead."

Sakura shifted back to Ken Fujimoto. "In circumstances like this, the legality of your parents' claim over you is null. You can make the decision to be tested or not," he told her. "We just want to see if your DNA matches these two people."

"Sure. I have nothing to lose," she replied, shrugging.

"Then we refuse testing," Mr. Haruno said. "I know how you lab-freaks work. You're going to go and make it so my DNA doesn't math up with my daughter's. I'm not letting you fucking blame me for some bitch misplacing her daughter."

Tsunade stood up, enraged. "Misplacing my daughter? She was stolen right out of Daycare. I didn't misplace her."

Sakura froze and look at Tsunade. "You mean, you're my biological mother?" she asked, shocked.

Tsunade nodded. "And Jiraiya is your father. _If_ the test says so. But you fit the age and the model. I'm almost positive you're my daughter."

Marisa could not make Sakura any more efficient at the test. She wanted so badly to be told that the Harunos weren't her parents. She made sure nothing was contaminated so there would be no doubt the results. Then she showed Ken her bruises.

"They did this to me last night," she told him. "They never lay a hand on me before. They just yelled at me all the time."

Everyone took information and Itachi got up when he saw Sakura getting tired. "Until we sort this all out, I'd like for Sakura to stay at my house. She can't be trusted to stay here if you hurt her so much in a single night. Sasuke, take Sakura upstairs and help her get some of her things together."

"Come on, Sakura," he replied, tapping her shoulder and helping her up.

She took a few changes of clothes, a razor to shave, a spare blade, her cell phone and her school books. Sasuke waited for her and helped her put it in a duffel and swung it over his shoulder. They walked down to learn from Jiraiya that Itachi took the bike so Sakura and Sasuke could drive home in the car.

She laughed softly as she saw how far apart their houses were--the expanse of the street, twenty-five rich houses away. "Thank you, for everything," Sakura whispered.

He shrugged. "Just one rule. You can't cut while you're at my house. I don't want to wake up and find you dead, splattered in blood, okay?"

She froze. No one knew. No one. "How do you know?" she asked.

He snorted. "You're not as sneaky as you think. I caught your wristbands soaking a few days ago. And then of curse, there were those times you slit them in the woods. Were you trying to kill yourself?" he replied.

She shrugged. "I don't even know anymore. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I go that one more centimeter. I want to sometimes."

Sasuke placed a hand over her hand. "Don't. Not when there are people that care about you. We can help."

"Why do you even care?" she asked.

"I don't know. The first time I saw you, I pegged you as this geek I would never want to know. But then I came to some soccer games and I heard your parents, and I talked with Jiraiya when there was nothing better to do. I started to figure out things about you. Like that you were really this jaded girl with nothing to save her from herself."

"So you think I'm being childish?" she asked. "I'm not. I took care of myself. There was no possible way that I would have been able to get help. I took care of myself doing the only thing possible. You saw what happened when I tried to stand up for myself."

Sasuke sighed. "But now you don't have to worry about it. You have a whole net of people ready to catch you if you fall. And everyone loves you. They would never let you get hurt again. You have a family now."

Sakura sighed and got out of the car, huffing when Sasuke refused to let her carry her own duffel. "So, how did Tsunade and Jiraiya figure out I might be their daughter?" she asked as they walked into the house. "I don't look like either of them. I'm pretty sure hair color is an inherited trait. Neither of them have pink hair."

Sasuke laughed. "Jiraiya's family all had pink hair. He dyed it when he got into middle school so people wouldn't stop questioning his sexuality. And they knew what their daughter looked like before she was abducted. Pink hair, green eyes, infectious smile…at one point they told everyone she had a wide forehead, but the police unit tried to show what she would look like if she lived to be seventeen, and the forehead was normal-sized."

Sakura put a hand to her forehead and gasped. It was always a sore-spot for her. Everyone made fun of how big it was. She never realized it helped to identify her as an abducted child. Hell, she never knew there was even an AMBER alert out there for her.

"First day I saw you was seventh grade. I freaked out at first. There you were, Jiraiya and his wife's daughter. A few years before that, the police thought they found you. DNA didn't match up. We're pretty sure it was the _real_Haruno girl if they wanted to get their DNA tested.

"I told Jiraiya, and we tried to prepare Tsunade for the shock when we realized you were coming into her junior class. It's been torture for everyone to watch you go through all of that, knowing we couldn't help. And then finally, Tsunade couldn't take it."

Sakura started to cry silently and she was shocked to feel Sasuke hug her. "She really loves you, Sakura. You're lucky to have people like her."

She smiled. "Yeah. Thank you…for everything."

Sasuke shrugged. "You're welcome."

* * *

The results were in and Sakura was crying.

"It's okay, it's okay," Sasuke told her, rubbing her head. "Everything's going to be all right."

"I know," she blubbered. "I'm just so happy. It's over. It's over. I don't have to see them again," she sobbed, hugging him.

Tsunade and Jiraiya were smiling and celebrating themselves, happy to know they had found their daughter again. They felt she needed time with her friend, and excused themselves to give Sakura and Sasuke some time alone.

"This is so amazing," she breathed, smiling. "Sasuke, I'm not a Haruno!"

He smiled and kissed her, happy for his girlfriend of three days. "You're a Mishimoto. It's such a strange name. Sakura Mishimoto."

She smiled back. "I think it's perfect," she replied. She let out a relieved sigh and looked at her arms. The bruises were fading, and they were now a greenish-yellow compared to the black they were only three weeks before. "I can't believe how different my life it. It hasn't even been a month and everything's upside-down."

"And you'll be moving out," Sasuke replied, frowning. "I won't get to see you at night."

Sakura laughed. "I won't get to sing you to sleep," she teased.

"Promise you'll sing for me some other time?" he replied.

"Depends. We still on for tomorrow?" she asked, kissing him.

"Yes. Is that even a question?" he replied, laughing. Then he frowned again. "We probably have to go to school again now. The only good thing about that would be telling everyone that you're mine now."

Sakura laughed, then got a distant look as she started to think. "They're be no one controlling me anymore. I can get a B and not get grounded. Hell, I can stop scaring myself every time I get a grade back. I can hang out with people again. I miss Hinata and Naruto and Neji and TenTen and Shikamaru and Temari…"

"I figured you would," Sasuke replied, smiling as he walked over to open the door.

Standing there, teary-eyed, were her friends. "We missed you too, Sakura-chaaaaan!" Naruto wailed, hugging her as Hinata blushed and came to hug Sakura as well.

"Guys!" she gasped, smiling. She looked at Sasuke, who shrugged. "Thank you," she mouthed, stuck in a pile of her close friends.

"We're sorry we weren't there for you, Sakura," TenTen told her, the first to make amends for her actions. "I started blowing you off because I thought you were blowing me off. I'm so sorry I didn't realize what was happening to you. You're my best friend. I should have seen it happening."

"I too am sorry," Neji replied. "I was mad you were alienating us. It never crossed my mind it may not be because you wanted us gone. I regret hurting you more than you were already hurting."

Sakura smiled and cried as all her friends apologized for leaving her. While some pointed out she had alienated them first, they did admit that they too were to blame. After she apologized and they cried a little more, everyone seemed to calm down and Naruto got back to his antics.

"So you're Tsunade-barchan's daughter?" he asked, excited. "Is she always an old fart, or is she really nice out of school?"

Tsunade laughed when she heard this, walking back into the room. "The only reason you think I'm a fart is because I won't let you paint InuZuka's face when he's sleeping my class. Or put Whoopee cushion on his seat. Or cover him in feathers. What do you have against that kid anyways?"

Naruto shrugged. "He tried to take Hinata away from me," he replied, holding her protectively.

Hinata's cousin, Neji laughed. "I already like this kid," he replied. Then he turned to Hinata. "Why haven't I met him yet? He should have a chance. You gave Naruto one."

She pretended to gag. "No way. He's a creep. You'd even like Naruto over Kiba. He has fleas."

Sakura laughed and rested on Sasuke. "Some things never change," she murmured.

"So, when are you and Sasuke getting married?" Naruto asked, coming straight into Sakura's face to ask her. "Any little _teme_ on the way?"

Sakura screeched. "No."

Sasuke laughed and pulled Sakura closer. "Not until after we graduate if at all," he replied humorously. "Sakura would still have to decide if she wanted to deal with me for the rest of my life…_dobe._"

The girls laughed as they two bantered back and forth. They incessant yelling made such a racket Itachi even came to Sasuke's room, on the other side of the house from his, and yelled to keep the noise down. It did nothing to calm them down when they saw he was only in his pants and sporting hickeys and a boner.

"Sasuke, control your friends," Itachi muttered. "Sakura, make sure you control Sasuke enough to make him control his friends."

"So, you like women being in control?" Naruto crooned, laughing.

Eventually they calmed down and everyone was hungry. Tsunade and Jiraiya, in the spirit of celebration, took everyone out to a fancy restaurant and Sakura smiled from where she sat, between her parents and across from her boyfriend and his brother.

"Hey, Sasuke, guess what?" she whispered.

"What?" he asked.

"I love you."

He smiled. "I love you too."

No one really knew how Sakura claimed the player, the bad-ass, the Uchiha at the school, and honestly she didn't know either. But she had him and she had a family that loved her, and friends that cared. She didn't know how she got this lucky, but somehow in those twisted years she lived with the Haruno, it led her straight to it, a family and a love.

"So, Sakura, what are we going to do about the scars?" Sasuke asked after they got home. Tsunade agreed for Sakura to spend one last night at the Uchiha house and the couple was spending it sleeping together in his room. "You can't wear wristbands forever."

She sighed and looked at her bare wrists. True to her word, Sakura hadn't cut once in the almost four weeks she spent at the Uchiha mansion. The second day there, Sasuke forced her to stop wearing things to cover her scars so she could come to terms with them. Just like he showed her how he came to terms with his own cutting.

His wrists, which she hadn't noticed before, were white from where all the scaring was. There was so much, it melded into one thick, solid line going on inch in one direction and two inches the other way.

Hers weren't much better. They weren't solid scar tissue, but it was a dizzy array of horizontal and diagonal lines, looking like a spider web on her wrists. It had an interesting texture and she shivered when she ran her fingers over the once smooth skin.

"There's always cosmetic surgery," he offered. "Do you want to get rid of them?"

She shook her head. "No, I wouldn't learn my lesson. They're a part of me. If I got rid of them, I'd forget the part of my life that led me to meet you. I wouldn't be able to remember how important you were to my life. I wouldn't know why I love you so much."

He laughed softly and smiled when he kissed her. "How is it I fell in love with a sappy romantic?" he asked. "So, no more cutting."

She nodded. "I will never cut myself again," she promised, wondering if it was a promise she could keep.


	2. Attention Fans

Hello,

This is not the writer you know as Camy-Tay. This is her brother, Jae, and I regret to inform you that she will no longer be able to write stories for you. November 18 of 2009, we received word that Cam had cancer. We caught it during her check-up after having the tapeworm removed, but we had not caught it in time.

April 17, 2010, Cam passed away from leukemia.

It has taken me almost a year to figure out her password to tell everyone what has happened. I am sorry for all of you that expected updates. I don't know why she ever made her password the mascot of the first boarding school she attended, but whatever. I loved her, but she was weird.

That being said, I know nothing about , except that Cam wrote on this website and she would want her followers to know she passed. I think they receive updates on her every entry, but I will try to post this letter at the end of every story she's written.

I will keep her page up and try to have her friends write stories in her memory so that she may live on, but I haven't talked to many of them since her funeral.

I'm sorry and God bless Cam. May she be in good hands.


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